Photo credit: Scott Kinville/315 Hockey.
By Scott Kinville/315 Hockey.
The Utica Pioneers Women’s Hockey Team (8-1-1 overall, 7-0-1 UCHC) has been on roll this season. After beginning the season unranked in the USCHO Division III Women’s poll, the Pioneers are now ranked fourteenth and are on a nine-game unbeaten streak. That streak was continued this weekend, as Utica defeated UCHC rival the Alvernia Golden Wolves (4-4-2 overall, 3-3-0 UCHC) in a two-game sweep.
The 315 Hockey recap of the Utica Pioneers Men’s Hockey win over Oswego: Utica Pioneers Men’s Hockey Shuts Out Oswego State, Three Observations.
The Pioneers and Golden Wolves met for the first of their two games on Friday afternoon at the brand-new Nexus Center. Utica jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on the visitors, with the first goal being scored by Cortney Staniszewski at the 10:02 mark. Carly Stefanini lit the lamp just over two minutes later with her second goal of the season to close the scoring for the first period – a period the Pioneers dominated in shots, outshooting the Golden Wolves 15-3.
Alvernia got within one goal in the second period on a goal by Abby Reisinger that would prove to be the only one of the period. Alvernia goaltender Julia Beaven had an easier period than the first, facing only six shots, while her teammates took four shots of their own on Utica goaltender Angela Hawthorne.
Hawthorne would have a much busier third period facing thirteen Golden Wolves shots and turning aside all of the them. The Pioneers sealed the win on a Tess Barrett goal at the 12:56 mark, which Stefanini drew an assist on for her second point of the game. When the final buzzer sounded, the Pioneers skated away with a 3-1 victory. With the win, the Pioneers are now 2-0 at the Nexus Center.
The teams met again on Saturday afternoon with the action moving next door to the Adirondack Bank Center, with Beaven and Hawthorne returning to their respective teams goaltender creases for a rematch from Friday. Utica took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by Hailey Modlin and never looked back. They dominated the first period, outshooting the visiting team by a 13-2 margin.
The Pioneer pressure continued in the second period, as they took another twenty shots on Beaven. They connected on one of those shots when Georgiana Santullo scored her sixth goal of the season with her linemates Erica Sloan and Carly Stefanini drawing the assists. Hawthorne stopped the two shots she faced in the second period as her team took a 2-0 lead into the locker room after forty minutes of play.
Utica took a 3-0 lead just forty-two seconds into the third period when Carolyn Whitney wrapped the puck around the left side of the Golden Wolves net and in. With just under thirteen minutes remaining, Molly Pedone put a loose puck on the edge of the crease in the back of the Alvernia net for the Pioneers fourth and final goal of the afternoon. The Golden Wolves applied more pressure on Hawthorne in the third period, registering eleven shots but she stopped them all to seal her teams 4-0 victory and record her second shutout of the season. Holly Silva’s two assists led the Pioneers in points on the afternoon.
The Pioneers now enter their end of semester break and do not return to action until January 6th, 2023 when they travel to Worcester, Massachussetts to take on the Worcester St Lancers. They are in second place in the UCHC standings with twenty-three points – just one point behind first place Nazareth. As they enter the break they have scored a total of fifty-four goals and allowed only eight, ranking them fourth in Division III in goals per game and sixth in goals allowed per game.
For more information about Utica Pioneers hockey, visit https://uticapioneers.com.
